- Pope remembers journalists who lost their lives due to violence and wars
Source: Vatican News [Vatican state media]
“Following the recitation of Sunday’s Regina Caeli, Pope Leo XIV recalled that today May 3rd marks World Press Freedom Day, the annual day promoted by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The Pope remarked that unfortunately, freedom of the press is often violated, sometimes blatantly and sometimes in subtle ways. He said: ‘Let us remember the many journalists and reporters who have fallen victim to wars and violence.'” (05/03/26)
- TX: Judge temporarily blocks ban on smokeable hemp
Source: United Press International
“A Texas judge on Friday temporarily paused the state’s ban on smokable hemp products, such as flower and joints, after three industry groups and multiple companies based in the state sued over it. The state in March expanded its limit on THC in hemp products from 0.3% levels of Delta-9 THC to cover any form of THC beyond the state’s previous limit of 0.3% total THC in dry weight of the intoxicating group of chemicals. … The groups that [sued] the state contend that the health department overstepped their constitutional authority and that the new rules have done irreparable harm to the Texas hemp industry, CBS Austin reported.” (05/02/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/05/02/texas-hemp-smokable-ban-blocked-by-judge/1781777761522/
- Australia: Man charged with murder and sexual assault of five-year-old girl
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Police in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) have charged a man with murder and two counts of sexual assault following the death of a five-year-old girl. The body of the girl, who is identified only as Kumanjayi Little Baby for cultural reasons, was discovered on Thursday following severals days of a major police search. Jefferson Lewis, 47, was charged with her murder on Saturday night and has been scheduled to appear in a Darwin court on Tuesday. Five people have been arrested over violent riots in Alice Springs sparked by the child’s death. Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole announced the charges against Lewis on Sunday morning.” (05/02/26)
- The Murder of Spirit Airlines
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“On May 2, Spirit Airlines ceased operations after it failed to get the US government to bail it out of the latest in a series of untenable situations — at least two of which the US government put it in to begin with. … Maybe Spirit would have failed even absent the massive jet fuel price increases. Perhaps the proposed merger with JetBlue would have dragged that airline down, too, instead of profitably folding Spirit’s assets into a more efficient operating environment. And maybe all of Ted Bundy’s victims were mere moments away from choosing suicide when he strangled them to death instead. We’ll never know, will we? What we do know is that the US government’s murder of Spirit Airlines will almost certainly result in (checks notes) ‘higher fares, fewer seats, and harm [to] millions of consumers.'” (05/02/26)
- Trump’s IRS lawsuit is best shakedown in presidential history
Source: USA Today
by James Bovard“President Donald Trump is suing the Internal Revenue Service to force the American people to pay him at least $10 billion in damages because he was embarrassed when his tax returns leaked out in 2020. Trump ordered his appointees at federal agencies to speedily give him the billions to settle his lawsuit. But on April 24, federal Judge Kathleen Williams temporarily stopped the greatest shakedown in presidential history. … Trump’s lawsuit pretends he was an innocent bystander. Who was president at the time of that leak? Trump. Who appointed the chief of the IRS? Trump. And who deserves $10 billion because of alleged federal misconduct under his watch? Trump.” (05/01/26)
- Standing Athwart Hegel, Yelling “Stop!”
Source: The Dispatch
by Jonah Goldberg“On Wednesday, The Atlantic’s Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, two serious journalists formerly with the Washington Post, begin their piece with a question: ‘Had President Trump, we wondered, possibly been reading or at least thumbing through – just maybe — the works of … Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel?’ That’s it. That’s the lede. … Is Trump a world-historical figure in the Hegelian sense? Are you high? Of course not. Parker and Scherer are more interested in whether Trump thinks he’s a world-historical figure in the way that Hegel described. The answer to that is also a resounding no. The dude doesn’t read memos. You think he’s thumbing through Hegel? In fairness to them, the real point of their piece is to illuminate that Trump’s delusions of grandeur are worrisomely out of control. And they succeed.” (05/01/26)
- Trump’s Iran blockade snatches defeat from the jaws of victory
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Trita Parsi“[T]he fragile ceasefire disproportionately favored the United States over Iran: Trump secured his central objective — a swift exit from a costly war — while Iran forfeited its primary source of leverage, namely the inflationary pressure of elevated oil prices. Tehran, by contrast, remained unable to achieve its core objective — meaningful sanctions relief — without entering a difficult diplomatic process with Washington. The asymmetry was stark: Trump could afford strategic patience, whereas Iran risked squandering the most consequential gains the conflict could have yielded if negotiations faltered or collapsed. In short, this emerging status quo could have constituted a quiet but decisive victory for Trump. … But then Trump committed a familiar and consequential error.” (05/02/26)
- The Trump Surveillance State
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano“The Fourth Amendment protects all persons from warrantless government searches and seizures of their persons, houses, papers and effects. It requires that warrants be supported by probable cause of crime and specifically describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. Last week, for the first time in the modern era, the government argued to the Supreme Court of the United States that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution did not outlaw general warrants.” (05/01/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2026/04/30/the-trump-surveillance-state
- Screenagers have something to teach Grandma
Source: New York Post
by Karol Markowicz“The zombies are everywhere. They’re staring at their phones as they carelessly cross the road. They’re constantly watching videos, sound-on and loudly, on airplanes or in store check-out lines. And they’re not Gen Z screenagers; now, the kids’ aging grandparents are quickly becoming the biggest screen addicts of all. … Last month Wired reported that a med student in India used AI to create a character named Emily Hart (a pretty blonde ‘MAGA influencer’ who claimed to enjoy posing in a stars-and-stripes bikini) and profited handsomely from the deception. In March the equally fake Jessica Foster, billed as a US Army service member, was exposed as a money-spinning AI fiction in a similar scam. Youngsters can spot AI from a mile away; it wasn’t Gen Z sending over cash.” (05/02/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/02/opinion/screenagers-have-something-to-teach-grandma/
- Michael Jackson: Man or Monster in the Mirror?
Source: Chris’s Substack
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra“The Jackson family is split down the middle on sanctioning the new film and critics have been similarly split, many voicing concern that its ‘sanitized’ version of MJ’s life sidesteps controversial charges of child molestation, which first surfaced in August 1993 and led Jackson to resolve a civil lawsuit in 1994 with the family of Jordan Chandler. A second series of molestation charges led to a 2005 criminal trial, in which Jackson was acquitted. Arguably, his reputation didn’t begin to recover until after his untimely death at the age of 50 in 2009. Conveniently, both the Broadway musical and the 2026 film end their time frame before any of this ugliness came to light.” (05/02/26)
https://chrismatthewsciabarra.substack.com/p/michael-jackson-man-or-monster-in
- Tucker Carlson and the MAGA Rift: Has Trump Failed on the JFK Files?
Source: JFK Facts
by Chad Nagle“Like him or not, the president accomplished a lot with Executive Order 14176.” (05/01/26)
https://jfkfacts.substack.com/p/tucker-carlson-and-the-maga-rift
- Trump’s priorities are revenge and posing
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Matt K Lewis“A wise man — possibly Winston Churchill — once said, ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste.’ And if he’d lived long enough to see President Trump in office, he might have added, ‘Especially if you can turn it into a real estate project.’ In the aftermath of the chaos at the White House Correspondents’ dinner, Trump was presented with yet another opportunity to refocus his presidency on issues important to the American people. Instead, he chose to exploit the opportunity for his personal priorities. The real crisis, in his telling, was less about guns or mental health and more about America’s strategic shortage of sufficiently opulent indoor gathering spaces.” (05/01/26)
- Protest Laws Should Be Viewed As Efforts To Ban Criticism Of Israel
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Laws aimed at pro-Palestine protests should always be looked at as efforts to ban criticism of Israel. That’s what we’re seeing in the UK as the prime minister encourages the prosecution of anyone who says ‘globalise the intifada.’ ‘If you stand alongside people who say globalise the intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted,’ said Keir Starmer during a Thursday press conference. ‘It is racism, extremely racism and it has left a minority community in this country scared, intimidated, wondering if they belong. So, I say again this government will do everything in our power to stamp this hatred out.'” (05/02/26)
- The Last Rationalist
Source: Law & Liberty
by Graham McAleer“Jürgen Habermas (1929–2026) dominated post-war European liberal philosophy. He dedicated his life to the rational foundation of a global liberal order and the post-national European Union. Loaded with philosophical terms, his writing does not invite the reader, yet there is pathos in the background. Habermas addressed the question of whether the Enlightenment was the cause of the German genocides and Germany’s own ruin.” (05/01/26)
- Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“Long time ago, May Day was about celebrating Spring — for which rejoicing is appropriate. Over the last century, it has become International Workers’ Day. ‘In 1889, an international federation of socialist groups and trade unions designated May 1 as pro-workers day,’ informs the Wikidates.org website, ‘on the anniversary of the Haymarket Riots in Chicago (1886).’ Five years later, clearly opposed to cavorting with socialists, the U.S. established Labor Day on September 1, an alternative date to honor workers. Today, political rallies and protests are expected in major cities across the country.” (05/01/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/05/01/mayday-mayday-mayday/
- Latin America’s grip on democracy
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“In its daily use of social media (three hours, 32 minutes on average), Latin America leads the world. Over the past quarter century, it has nearly tripled the number of people attending university and cut poverty by about half. This list of notable trends could go on, regardless of concerns about crime, corruption, and caudillo-style rulers. Together, however, they might help explain this latest news: Last year, the region saw the greatest improvement in key indicators of democracy, such as political participation and civil liberties, compared with Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. In fact, it was the only region to improve. And Latin America did so after seeing nine years of decline on the index of democracy compiled annually by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).” (05/01/26)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0501/Latin-America-s-grip-on-democracy
- After Nudging: The Rise and Fall of a Behavioral Economics Fad
Source: The Daily Economy
by Richard Morrison“In ‘It’s On You,’ Nick Chater and George Loewenstein turn from advocates of ‘nudging,’ subtle policy efforts to shape behavior without coercion, to critics who see it as ineffective and misleading.” (05/01/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/after-nudging-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-behavioral-economics-fad/
- Trump’s Iran War Continues to Violate the Constitution — and Now Also the War Powers Act of 1973
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin“In my March 5 Dispatch article on the Iran War and the Constitution, I explained why Donald Trump’s initiation of the war without congressional authorization is unconstitutional. As of today, it is also in violation of the War Powers Act of 1973. Enacted in the wake of the Vietnam War, the WPA requires the president to secure congressional approval within 60 days of entering U.S. troops into ‘hostilities’ or situations ‘where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances.’ The president can seek a 30 day extension without additional congressional authorization, but Trump has not done so in this case. The sixty day deadline expires today. Therefore, Trump is now in violation of the WPA, as well as the Constitution.” 905/01/26)
- No More Kings: Time to End Sovereign Immunity
Source: Common Dreams
by Eirik Cheverud“On three major occasions in President Trump’s second term, his opponents, including many elected officials, have taken to the streets under the banner of ‘No Kings.’ And yet just this week, King Charles III spoke before our joint houses of Congress, where his comments about governmental checks and balances drew a standing ovation from everyone there. A contradiction lies here, between our history and our perception of it. The truth is, the law that made kings untouchable (that ‘the king can do no wrong) has never gone away in the United States. Instead, it multiplied. Today we call it ‘sovereign immunity.'” [editor’s note: Fascinating how this “progressive” pundit babbles about “sovereign immunity” when the “qualified” version for police is the real problem – SAT] [editor’s note: Fascinating how SAT doesn’t understand that the “qualified” version is a just a subset of the “sovereign” version and that both are irredeemably evil – TLK] (05/02/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/donald-trump-divine-right-of-kings
- Unattended Baggage, episode 339
Source: Unattended Baggage
“Alex wants his underwear back.” (05/01/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-339-alex-wants-his-underwear
- Why Wealth Taxes Fail
Source: Reason
“California progressives are pushing for a tax on billionaires; so are senators like Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.). But as Andrew Heaton explains, such programs don’t work. Just ask France.” (05/01/26)
- Kash Patel Is Talented In One Thing—Trump Sycophancy
Source: The UnPopulist
“Senior Editor Berny Belvedere explains in his debut video (taking the first step to internet stardom) in our early-May video roundup.” (05/02/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/kash-patel-is-talented-in-one-thingtrump
- Serious Trouble, 05/01/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“I’m Still Mad He Put Martha Stewart In Prison.” (05/01/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/im-still-mad-he-put-martha-stewart
- The Focus Group with Sarah Longwell, 05/02/26
Source: The Bulwark
“These Trump Voters Think He Staged His Own Assassination Attempt (w/ David Frum).” (05/01/26)
- NPR Politics Podcast, 05/01/26
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“Trump’s retribution tour: Comey, Indiana Republicans, and ABC.” (05/01/26)